All right, let's go to the book of Deuteronomy and chapter number one and and I'm like I said I'm so thankful for those of you who are following along with us in this Bible reading program Think about this you're a quarter of the way through Now it may not seem like it But if you stuck with it, if you've made it and you're beyond Deuteronomy in chapter number one right now. But you've made it three months. Man, you've done a great job. And I'm excited about that. Some of you may have stumbled along the way and you're not reading as diligently as you once were in the beginning. That's OK. I've tried to encourage you to say, listen, I've stopped, but I want to start again. I can't explain to you enough how beneficial it is for you to pray or to pray. It is beneficial to pray, but to read. And if you can make it through, reading through the Bible in an entire year. Listen, there are people who never read the Bible. So they have no idea what it contains. But you, because you open up God's Word, and you're reading where God wants to speak to you, and you're seeing what God's desire is for you, it's a benefit to you. And I'm not keeping track. I would like to keep track. Not so I can say, why aren't you reading? But so I can cheer you on. And I can come on and say, boy, I am so proud of you. And so I don't know who's reading and who's not, so I have to tell you that I'm proud of you and not knowing who's reading and who's not. I know some of you continue on, continue on reading because you talk to me about it. And so I am so proud of you. And God's proud of you because you are disciplining yourself. Some of you may read your Bible every day and you're not following along with us. That's okay, I'm proud of you too. If you've disciplined yourself to read in your Bible every day, even if it's just a few verses, I'm still proud of you because you are dedicating yourself to God. And it's what we need in our lives. So I am proud of those of you who do that too. But as I was reading through this and I came across this Deuteronomy and chapter number one, there's a couple of things I want to get in. I want to make some general comments about Deuteronomy and chapter number one, just some things that jumped off the page to me there. And then I want to go to the book of Proverbs. We haven't touched the book of Proverbs yet in our preaching through the Bible. And so what chapter is it? Let me go ahead and tell you so that you can maybe set you a mark there. But it's Proverbs chapter 11. So we're going to be talking about both of those things tonight. Israel now in Deuteronomy chapter 1, Moses is coming to the end of his life. He's preparing to turn the reins over to the children of Israel to Joshua. They're getting ready to go into the promised land. Before they get there though, Moses is going to tell them and remind them about the situation, the circumstances that they find themselves in. As a matter of fact, Moses is going to remind them that it took them 40 years to make a trip that should have taken them less than 11 days. A couple of hundred miles is all it is from Egypt to Kadesh Barnea. From Egypt to Canaan is just a couple of hundred miles. You know, the average kind of travel is 10 miles to 11 miles a day. A couple of hundred miles, I mean, they should have knocked that out in a few days, but it took them 40 years. Now, let's remember something else. Moses is telling this story to those who are getting ready to go over into Cainish Barnea. The reason that he's telling this story is because he's recounting the history. Where were all of those that experienced the exodus? Where are all of those that had crossed the Red Sea? All of the adults, where are they at? Well, they're in the grave, right? These that Moses is telling this to are those that survived the wilderness wanderings. They're the ones that God didn't judge because of their sin. And so Moses is, again, reminding them how they got where they're at and why they're where they're at. So, Deuteronomy, in chapter number 1, and let's read just verse number 8. Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to give unto them and that it will recede after them. So he is reminding them about their journey. Verse number two says, there are 11 days journey from Oreb by the way of Mount Seir unto Kadesh Barnea. Now that's from the mountain range, Mount Sinai. That was down on the Sinai Peninsula. Again, they took a big detour to get to where they were going. But if they just went straight across, it's about just a few days' journey. So Moses is reminding them about the land that they were going to possess is the land that was a promise that was given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. along the way as the people began to grow and the people began to prosper, Moses tells them in verse number nine that he was not able to bear them alone and so God told him and he divided up the authority amongst the people and he told them to judge the people and we get to verse number 17 as he's talking to those judges, he says this, you shall not respect persons in judgment. But you shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's. And the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it. Now as I was reading that this week, I just thought that these would be good words of encouragement for us also. As we're living in this world and we're faced with untruth and we're faced with people who are departing from the faith and we're faced with people who really our culture today has no love and respect for the truth of God's word. I thought it would be encouraging for us to recognize the word that Moses told the judges. He told them not to be afraid of the face of man. We need to be likewise. Listen, we should not fear what men think. We've got the Word of God. It is the truth of the Word of God and the Word of God stands forever. And so, as the world turns away from God, as the world puts aside God's word, we shouldn't be afraid of the face of man if they say the word of God is outdated or if they say what we believe is, you know, I don't want to use the word intolerant because that puts you on a particular issue, but there's lots of issues where the world thinks we're intolerant, not just one. But if, listen, if we're following the Word of God and we're going to stand firm on the Word of God, even if the world may say we're intolerant, let's stand and not be afraid of the face of man. And remember this. In this case, when Moses told the judges, he was telling them, for the judgment is God's. He's basically saying, listen, when you make a judgment, you're making a judgment on God's behalf. But let's remember this. This is God's world. He's working in it, both the will and the do of His good pleasure. And the world doesn't comprehend it and the world doesn't understand it. So let's just stand true on the word of God, stand firm on the word of God, no matter what comes in the world. So let's just learn a lesson from that. As we read on and think and read verse number 21, He tells them, Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee. Go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers has sent unto thee. Fear not, neither be discouraged. Now again, this is the first time they came to Kadesh Barnea. This is the first time that they were supposed to go across and to take the land. Notice, God set the land before them. They were going to go up and possess the land, not because of their abilities, but because it was the promised land. Let's never forget that. God said, you're going, this is the land, this is the place I want you to go to. And they need to understand that it's God's land. God's giving it to them. And he says, fear not, neither be discouraged. They're gonna send some spies over into the land and the spies are going to say, oh, wait a minute, we saw the giants over there and they've got big walled cities and all of that and because of that they were discouraged. Listen, God told them beforehand, I want you to go over. And because they believed the promises of God and they believed in who God is, they should have been willing to go over. They should have not have been afraid or been discouraged. But they were. Verse 25, he reminds them. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down unto us and brought us word again and said, it is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us. It is a good land. Now, let's always remember this, that one of the things that I've always tried to say is that The promised land is a picture of the blessed Christian life. Let's recognize that even though as we're walking with Christ and we're being faithful to him, going in the place where God has led us, let's understand it is a good place that God is leading us. There may be giants in the land, there may be trials in the way, but let's remember that it's a good land. and the good place for them it was that the Lord our God doth give us and the way that the Lord leads us is a good way and we need to understand that but the sad thing is it tells us in verse 26 notwithstanding you would not go up but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and I want you to notice this They also accused God of hating them. It says, and you murmured in your tents and said, because the Lord hated us, he brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. There should have been no doubt in their mind that God did not hate them. But they said God hated us and he brought us to this place to kill us. Listen, I hope you never come to the place to where you question God's love for you and you question whether, well, you're brought to a place where you say that God hates you. That's what the children of Israel did and that's what caused them to die in the wilderness. That's what caused them to miss out the promised land. God does not hate them. The Lord your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes. So they needed to understand that the Lord is going to fight for them. The Lord bear them through the desert. Verse 31, and in the wilderness where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee as a man doth bear his son in all the way that you went. Think about this, how would a man bear his son? Think about, I mean there's lots of things that come to your mind. Think about maybe the old covered wagon days. And maybe the covered wagon comes to a river, a swollen river, and maybe there's a boy about JP's age. And if he tries to go across that river on his own, what's gonna happen? He's probably not gonna be able to make it. He's not strong enough. But if it was J.R. taking J.P., what would he do? He would pick him up and he'd put him in his arms and he'd pack him across the river, right? Leading him to safety. Well, that's the way God led the children of Israel through Egypt. They weren't going through on their own strength. They were going through on the strength of God. The next thing that came to my mind, any of y'all remember Chris, which was, what was their name at Salem? The old man and the old lady that had Chris, their grandson? Anyway, you all remember if I tell you his name? Peterson, Chris Peterson. Remember when he got down to the water hike and he couldn't make it back out? Brother Mark had to pack him out? That's the next thing that comes to my mind. How do you do that? You pick them up. But that's the way the Lord did Israel. He brought them through the wilderness. He bared them as a man would bare his son. Folks, that's the way the Lord is bearing you through this life. He's bearing you through this life like a man would bear his son. When the way gets too hard, he's gonna pick you up and carry you. When the circumstance get too much for you to handle, he's gonna carry you through. You must go. You have to go. This is the way. It's the way the Lord is leading. And just like the Lord led the children of Israel through the wilderness, God is leading you through this life. And just like the outcome to them was for them to come to the promised land, He's leading you to the promised land. Ultimately, like they made it, so too are you. So never forget that. Even though they did not believe the Lord, verse 32, get in this thing, you did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you to search you out of place, to pitch your tents in, and fire by night to show you by what way you should go. and in a cloud by day. A perfect picture, truth for us. God went before the children of Israel. Three days journey before them to prepare the way for them. Do you recognize that the Lord goes before you to prepare your way? He's not taking you out of the wilderness. He's leading you through the wilderness. Never forget that. Never forget that no matter how difficult your trials are, no matter how difficult your life may become, the Lord is leading you. He's going before you. He's preparing the way. That doesn't mean that the way is going to be easy. That doesn't mean that the burdens are going to be light. That just means that the Lord is leading you. Never forget that. It's easy for us to forget sometimes that as God went before the children of Israel, the Lord goes before us also. Let's never forget that. Never forget that. The Lord led them through. Verse 36, there is only one. It says, save Caleb the son of Japhuna, he shall see it. And to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon and to his children because he hath wholly followed the Lord. Who was able to go into the promised land? Of all of those that were age 20, they were not able to go into the promised land except for Caleb. Why? Because he wholly followed the Lord. He enjoyed the blessings of God because he wholly followed the Lord. Let that be the testimony of our lives. That we enjoy the blessings of God because we wholly follow the Lord. We're not following the Lord a little bit. but we're completely, wholeheartedly following the Lord. That was the message that Moses gave the children of Israel as they came the second time. That's really what the book of Deuteronomy is about. It's about Moses telling the children of Israel, this is what happened to your parents. These are the ones that came to Kadesh Barnea the second time and he's really telling them this is what happened to your parents and he's warning them not to make the same mistakes. And that message is still carried on for us today, so that we don't make the same mistakes. Now just Proverbs 11, 24 and 25, just very quickly. This was in our daily reading this week, and I read this this week, and I knew that we were going to vote. I knew I'd talked about it on Wednesday night. I'd talked about voting to help those who are less for the, you know, public New Guinea who were the earthquakes that happened and the family that is incurred all of those medical bills. I knew we were going to ask to support those this week. And, and as I read this, I thought this was fitting for us. I didn't know how the vote was going to turn out. But I thought, well, this is fitting. Listen, how simple this is. Again, proverbs are not what you build doctrine on. Proverbs are wise sayings. Proverbs are the words that describe for us God's order of the world. So as you go through the book of Proverbs, someone said, there's not much common sense anymore. Common sense is not very common. Well, that's because people don't use wisdom anymore. We might have a lot more common sense if people would read the book of Proverbs a little more. So the book of Proverbs is just a description for us of God's order of the world. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth. And there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. So what's that saying? that's saying this if you give don't think that you're going to lose because you give you give and you give and you give and the Lord will make you the increase both financially and as a church we need to understand that applies to the word too the more we scatter the word the more increase we're going to see And there is that which withholdeth more than is suitable, or meet, but attendeth to poverty. In other words, the people that's trying to save, gotta save, gotta save, gotta save, I'm not gonna give, I'm not gonna give, I'm not gonna give, and that leads you to poverty. You try to hold back, you try to keep in, you try to keep for yourself, it's gonna lead you into poverty, this says. So by giving away, you increase, and by keeping, you get poorer. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. I just thought that was good for us. Here's what we need to understand as a church. If we give, the Lord will give back. On an individual basis, if we give, the Lord will give back. But if we hold in, we hold to our heart and we keep and we're We withhold more than is suitable, that will lead us into poverty. The Lord loves a cheerful giver. Let's understand the wisdom of giving because the Lord will cause us to increase. Thank you for your truth, Lord. Thank you for this opportunity we have to be together tonight. And I pray, God, that we will hear your word and your Holy Spirit will open your word to our hearts. and that you will bless your people this week. Thank you for the eternal life that you have so freely given us. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.